ENDLESS™ Space 2

Those familiar with the first Endless Space will recall the Horatio as the rather eccentric race of egg-headed clones whose leader was into eugenics. As promised last November, Endless Space 2 has now launched its second of three proposed major pre-release updates, which sees the return of the deceptive doppelgangers as the turn-based strategy's newest playable faction.

The update also brings with it a couple of new minor factions—the Gnashast's Scavengers, and the Tikanan's Eusocials. A new technology tree, some reworked game menu options, and five new victory conditions are also among the most significant changes. The latter adds Supremacy, Conquest, Science, Economy, and Wonder; while two new galaxy shapes by way of 4-disks and Ring await players too. 

Here's developer Amplitude discussing that and more at length: 

A number of tweaks and adjustments have been made to how the game plays, its battle sequences, diplomacy, UI and AI—not to mention a range of bug fixes—the sum of which can be found this way. 

Amplitude notes that saves from update one are not compatible with this latest version of Endless Space 2, however previous saves can be accessed via the 'Beta' tab should you wish to play on minus the latest changes.

Jan 26, 2017
ENDLESS™ Space 2 - Steph(✿◠‿◠)



[DISCLAIMER] OLD SAVES (UPDATE 1) ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THIS VERSION - REMEMBER TO START A NEW GAME
[DISCLAIMER 2] PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF THE GAME ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON THE BETA TAB (Right click on the game in your Steam library > Properties > Beta): YOU CAN NOW CHOOSE TO GO BACK TO A PREVIOUS VERSION


[MAJOR CHANGES]
  • Added a new major faction, the Horatio!
  • Implemented a new Technology tree
  • Added Battle Play Cards
  • Reworked the game options menu
  • Added Advanced Culture in addition to Scavengers and Eucosial (Z'vali & Epistis are now advanced)
  • Added the Gnashast minor faction (Scavengers)
  • Added the Tikanan minor faction (Eusocials)
  • Added the Eyder, a Scavenger minor faction created by the community
  • Added 5 new victory conditions:
    • Supremacy
    • Conquest
    • Science
    • Economy
    • Wonder
  • Added 2 new galaxy shapes:
    • 4-disks
    • Ring

[GAMEPLAY]
  • Heroes skills don’t stack anymore
  • Added Dust Inflation effects on buyouts, retrofits, repair costs, marketplace prices
  • Added a Rebellion system
  • Added a Space port
  • Added a Migration system
  • Dictatorship can now use propaganda in star system to influence political orientation
  • Added population collection bonus when hitting certain thresholds
  • Updated the planet grid along the lines of temperature & biodiversity (previously temperature and humidity), along with terraforming process & FIDSI distribution
  • Implemented Supervisor (auto management of construction queue and population)
  • Quests:
    • Implemented the Horatio Chapter 1 and 2
    • Implemented the Sophons Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Implemented the Cravers Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Implemented the Lumeris Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Implemented the Vodyani Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Implemented the United Empire Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Achieving Minor Faction Quests with the Vodyani now doesn’t raze the Minor System but Brainwashes its population
    • Implemented 8 Deeds
    • Implemented 4 Wonders

[BATTLE]
  • Deck building
    • Added 16 battle play cards in the game
      • 5 cards by default for a deck of 3
      • Added technologies to increase deck size and unlock cards
      • Cards have more complex effects, useful or not depending on the situation
    • Added deck panel in the military screen sidebar
      • Free deck changes every ten turns, otherwise it will cost influence
  • Before battle
    • Added automated defensive fleet merging before battle
    • Added window to select which Empire to attack on a system
  • Advanced battle screen
    • Changed the layout to highlight the play card choice
    • It is no longer possible to simulate your opponent’s plays
      • Added the 3 last plays used against you by the opponent
    • Added drag and drop to move the ships between your flotillas
      • Reduced minimum CP to unlock more flotillas
      • Added 3 sorting presets to sort the ships
      • Added locking state on ships to force them in a flotilla
      • Saved the fleet configurations from battle to battle
      • Added new Ship icons to show the roles
    • Added 3 stats buttons to compare the 2 fleets:
      • Military power (as currently)
      • Energy / Projectile power (takes into account the weapon and defence)
      • Range compatibility
  • During battle
    • Firing ranges are now fixed by phase
      • There are 3 phases with the same duration
      • Ranges between peered flotillas are set based on the intentions (e.g. Short vs Long => Long, Medium, Short ; Short vs Short => Short, Short, Short)
      • Peered flotilla is the priority target, other flotillas can be targeted based on distance
    • Improved Scan view
      • Improved ship labels: the left-side gauge shows damage taken (with misses, shield damage reduction and hull plating), the right-side gauge shows damage inflicted (same details), shield gage is now around the HP gage
      • Added flotilla label when the camera is far away
      • Added trajectories and targeting on the galaxy floor (thickness of the line shows the DPS)
      • Added damage taken numbers above the ships
    • Added Flotillas HUD:
      • Shows a list of ships per flotilla (with HP state and destruction feedback)
      • Shows the morale feedback (fleet gains bonus if there are more alive flotillas compared to the opponent)
    • Improved free cam:
      • Use shift to accelerate the camera move
      • Left click to lock the camera on a ship then use arrows or left click to rotate and mouse wheel to zoom
  • Data
    • Reduced range penalties (especially lasers and slugs)
    • Reduced the energy / projectile “hard counter” effect (e.g. shields also slightly stop projectile weapons and never completely stop energy weapons)
    • Increased defence module efficiency
    • Temporary removed critical hit stats (waiting for an implementation fix and a better effect)
    • Added damage bonus for strategic weapons (waiting for exotic effects)
    • Multiplied costs and damage of the missile and beam weapons by 1.5
    • Global weapon damage balancing

[DIPLOMACY]
  • Cravers can now close borders when the Militarists have a majority.
  • The following terms are no longer blocked by the "Eternal War" trait: open/close borders, vision sharing, map sharing, trade agreement, science agreement. Note that most of these are already gated by the peace relation state, so it is redundant to block them directly.
  • Eternal War no longer prevents empires from sending Dust to reduce pressure (the description of the trait only talks about peace).
  • Map sharing is no longer possible in Cold War.

[UI]
  • You can now rename planets that you colonise, except unique ones
  • Changed enemy plays display on Advanced battle setup screen
  • Improved diplomacy screen and truce notifications
  • Added a notification for rebellion
  • Added a modal panel for the system political event (accessible with a button in the system management)
  • Scan view economy has been modified (last stage added (system rank))
  • Changed position of the open political overview system button in the colony side panels
  • Changed how enemy plays are displayed

[VFX]
  • Added new skyboxes: Red Dwarf and Binary Solar System,
  • Shield FX has been improved
  • Added transition between ground battle notification and ground battle visual
  • Added special nodes
    • BlackHole
    • SolarNebular
    • SpaceCloud

[AI]
  • Fleet behaviour tweaks:
    • More reactive fleet missions
    • Motherships can now detach to attack
    • Invader ships wait to have full manpower to leave to attack
  • Added buyout of system by influence
  • First Spaceport use (only when system is over populated and unhappy)
  • Now able to send civilian ships from systems to outposts
  • A lot of improvements for the general stability of the IA
  • AI's desire for more systems increases as its planets are depleted (whether they are Cravers or not). AI will raze its worst depleted planets when over its over-colonization threshold
  • Added ability to propose Open Borders in specific cases
  • AI now evaluates map exchange in diplomacy
  • Reinforced buying luxury on the market when a rebellion is under way
  • Forced root priority of Buying resource on the market to 1 instead of 0.2
  • AI now declares war before moving (instead of after) if the player closes its borders to the AI

[FIX]
  • Improved the overall stability and performance
  • Fixed several serious errors
  • Prevent the Garrisons button from being displayed uninitialized in some situations.
  • Fixed Lumeris being able to colonize planets they haven't discovered yet
  • Fixed game speed multiplier being applied to Emperor's Will state
  • Fixed Benthys not using second assimilation trait. Improved tooltip for the trait
  • Image and description of unique planet are now related to the unique planet instead of its type
  • Fixed Outpost buyout button appearing on colonized systems
  • Updated Planet tooltip to display origin of effects, instead of grouping everything.
  • Fixed camera not zooming on fleets when the player does not own a system
  • Numerous minor fixes!

KNOW ISSUE
  • When playing as a Vodyani, the Supervisor will generate a crash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGkgwKaQLpc


Enjoy and please share your feedback with us on the Steam Discussions or the official Games2Gether forum after you've tried out the new update! :)


Amplitude Studios
Jan 26, 2017
ENDLESS™ Space 2 - Steph(✿◠‿◠)



[DISCLAIMER] OLD SAVES (UPDATE 1) ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THIS VERSION - REMEMBER TO START A NEW GAME
[DISCLAIMER 2] PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF THE GAME ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON THE BETA TAB (Right click on the game in your Steam library > Properties > Beta): YOU CAN NOW CHOOSE TO GO BACK TO A PREVIOUS VERSION


[MAJOR CHANGES]
  • Added a new major faction, the Horatio!
  • Implemented a new Technology tree
  • Added Battle Play Cards
  • Reworked the game options menu
  • Added Advanced Culture in addition to Scavengers and Eucosial (Z'vali & Epistis are now advanced)
  • Added the Gnashast minor faction (Scavengers)
  • Added the Tikanan minor faction (Eusocials)
  • Added the Eyder, a Scavenger minor faction created by the community
  • Added 5 new victory conditions:
    • Supremacy
    • Conquest
    • Science
    • Economy
    • Wonder
  • Added 2 new galaxy shapes:
    • 4-disks
    • Ring

[GAMEPLAY]
  • Heroes skills don’t stack anymore
  • Added Dust Inflation effects on buyouts, retrofits, repair costs, marketplace prices
  • Added a Rebellion system
  • Added a Space port
  • Added a Migration system
  • Dictatorship can now use propaganda in star system to influence political orientation
  • Added population collection bonus when hitting certain thresholds
  • Updated the planet grid along the lines of temperature & biodiversity (previously temperature and humidity), along with terraforming process & FIDSI distribution
  • Implemented Supervisor (auto management of construction queue and population)
  • Quests:
    • Implemented the Horatio Chapter 1 and 2
    • Implemented the Sophons Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Implemented the Cravers Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Implemented the Lumeris Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Implemented the Vodyani Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Implemented the United Empire Chapter 3 and 4 (no Final Reward)
    • Achieving Minor Faction Quests with the Vodyani now doesn’t raze the Minor System but Brainwashes its population
    • Implemented 8 Deeds
    • Implemented 4 Wonders

[BATTLE]
  • Deck building
    • Added 16 battle play cards in the game
      • 5 cards by default for a deck of 3
      • Added technologies to increase deck size and unlock cards
      • Cards have more complex effects, useful or not depending on the situation
    • Added deck panel in the military screen sidebar
      • Free deck changes every ten turns, otherwise it will cost influence
  • Before battle
    • Added automated defensive fleet merging before battle
    • Added window to select which Empire to attack on a system
  • Advanced battle screen
    • Changed the layout to highlight the play card choice
    • It is no longer possible to simulate your opponent’s plays
      • Added the 3 last plays used against you by the opponent
    • Added drag and drop to move the ships between your flotillas
      • Reduced minimum CP to unlock more flotillas
      • Added 3 sorting presets to sort the ships
      • Added locking state on ships to force them in a flotilla
      • Saved the fleet configurations from battle to battle
      • Added new Ship icons to show the roles
    • Added 3 stats buttons to compare the 2 fleets:
      • Military power (as currently)
      • Energy / Projectile power (takes into account the weapon and defence)
      • Range compatibility
  • During battle
    • Firing ranges are now fixed by phase
      • There are 3 phases with the same duration
      • Ranges between peered flotillas are set based on the intentions (e.g. Short vs Long => Long, Medium, Short ; Short vs Short => Short, Short, Short)
      • Peered flotilla is the priority target, other flotillas can be targeted based on distance
    • Improved Scan view
      • Improved ship labels: the left-side gauge shows damage taken (with misses, shield damage reduction and hull plating), the right-side gauge shows damage inflicted (same details), shield gage is now around the HP gage
      • Added flotilla label when the camera is far away
      • Added trajectories and targeting on the galaxy floor (thickness of the line shows the DPS)
      • Added damage taken numbers above the ships
    • Added Flotillas HUD:
      • Shows a list of ships per flotilla (with HP state and destruction feedback)
      • Shows the morale feedback (fleet gains bonus if there are more alive flotillas compared to the opponent)
    • Improved free cam:
      • Use shift to accelerate the camera move
      • Left click to lock the camera on a ship then use arrows or left click to rotate and mouse wheel to zoom
  • Data
    • Reduced range penalties (especially lasers and slugs)
    • Reduced the energy / projectile “hard counter” effect (e.g. shields also slightly stop projectile weapons and never completely stop energy weapons)
    • Increased defence module efficiency
    • Temporary removed critical hit stats (waiting for an implementation fix and a better effect)
    • Added damage bonus for strategic weapons (waiting for exotic effects)
    • Multiplied costs and damage of the missile and beam weapons by 1.5
    • Global weapon damage balancing

[DIPLOMACY]
  • Cravers can now close borders when the Militarists have a majority.
  • The following terms are no longer blocked by the "Eternal War" trait: open/close borders, vision sharing, map sharing, trade agreement, science agreement. Note that most of these are already gated by the peace relation state, so it is redundant to block them directly.
  • Eternal War no longer prevents empires from sending Dust to reduce pressure (the description of the trait only talks about peace).
  • Map sharing is no longer possible in Cold War.

[UI]
  • You can now rename planets that you colonise, except unique ones
  • Changed enemy plays display on Advanced battle setup screen
  • Improved diplomacy screen and truce notifications
  • Added a notification for rebellion
  • Added a modal panel for the system political event (accessible with a button in the system management)
  • Scan view economy has been modified (last stage added (system rank))
  • Changed position of the open political overview system button in the colony side panels
  • Changed how enemy plays are displayed

[VFX]
  • Added new skyboxes: Red Dwarf and Binary Solar System,
  • Shield FX has been improved
  • Added transition between ground battle notification and ground battle visual
  • Added special nodes
    • BlackHole
    • SolarNebular
    • SpaceCloud

[AI]
  • Fleet behaviour tweaks:
    • More reactive fleet missions
    • Motherships can now detach to attack
    • Invader ships wait to have full manpower to leave to attack
  • Added buyout of system by influence
  • First Spaceport use (only when system is over populated and unhappy)
  • Now able to send civilian ships from systems to outposts
  • A lot of improvements for the general stability of the IA
  • AI's desire for more systems increases as its planets are depleted (whether they are Cravers or not). AI will raze its worst depleted planets when over its over-colonization threshold
  • Added ability to propose Open Borders in specific cases
  • AI now evaluates map exchange in diplomacy
  • Reinforced buying luxury on the market when a rebellion is under way
  • Forced root priority of Buying resource on the market to 1 instead of 0.2
  • AI now declares war before moving (instead of after) if the player closes its borders to the AI

[FIX]
  • Improved the overall stability and performance
  • Fixed several serious errors
  • Prevent the Garrisons button from being displayed uninitialized in some situations.
  • Fixed Lumeris being able to colonize planets they haven't discovered yet
  • Fixed game speed multiplier being applied to Emperor's Will state
  • Fixed Benthys not using second assimilation trait. Improved tooltip for the trait
  • Image and description of unique planet are now related to the unique planet instead of its type
  • Fixed Outpost buyout button appearing on colonized systems
  • Updated Planet tooltip to display origin of effects, instead of grouping everything.
  • Fixed camera not zooming on fleets when the player does not own a system
  • Numerous minor fixes!

KNOW ISSUE
  • When playing as a Vodyani, the Supervisor will generate a crash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGkgwKaQLpc


Enjoy and please share your feedback with us on the Steam Discussions or the official Games2Gether forum after you've tried out the new update! :)


Amplitude Studios
Counter-Strike 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

Heavens to Murgatroyd, it’s only the weekly Steam charts! That is to say, the ten games which sold best on Steam last week.

After a string of backwards-looking weeks, it’s beginning to look a lot like 2017 at last.

… [visit site to read more]

Dec 19, 2016
ENDLESS™ Space 2 - Frogsquadron



Hi everyone,

Here's the list of changes coming to Endless Space 2 with update [0.1.23]:

[0.1.23]

[FIXES]
  • Fixed issues that would cause turns to hang indefinitely after clicking End Turn

That's it! Get playing!
Dec 19, 2016
ENDLESS™ Space 2 - Frogsquadron



Hi everyone,

Here's the list of changes coming to Endless Space 2 with update [0.1.23]:

[0.1.23]

[FIXES]
  • Fixed issues that would cause turns to hang indefinitely after clicking End Turn

That's it! Get playing!
ENDLESS™ Space 2 - Steph(✿◠‿◠)


Hey everyone,

Please find below the patch notes for the [0.1.21] version of ES2.

In case you've missed the news, Mathieu our Production Director wrote a blog post about the progress of the current patch for ES2 and Update 2. Check it out here: link.

"Hi all,

As you know, we have been experiencing issues with Endless Space 2 update 1, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

It has been difficult to fix these for two reasons: it is a complex problem, and we are working in parallel in fixing update 1 and developing update 2. We have completely changed the way AI works in Endless Space 2 (compared to our previous games), and the technological aspect of this new AI is harder to maintain / develop.

When we started the project, the AI team looked for other architectures / ways of implementing an AI, and came up with an architecture working in a module separate from the main game. This offered lots of interesting possibilities, such as the AI using its own memory mapping without interfering with the game data, which was one of the limits of our previous AIs. We have also worked a lot on graphical tools to visualize (and debug!) what the AI is doing. The one technical issue with this AI, is that is has to interact with the game to synchronize its data, to make sure it makes educated decisions based on fresh information.

In recent months after the AI architecture was laid down, we implemented a lot of features to allow the AI to play the game, but we have not worked as much on the technical performance of the AI. The status we had at early access was "ok but a bit slow" for the AI, which we deemed acceptable. However, when we added content and features for Update 1, it brought up multiple issues in terms of memory use & multi-threading stability. We set out to fix all these only to be mired in side-effects: performance issues, lags, various bugs and blockers. Sorting these out proved long and challenging, but with the help of the Unity support teams we got the situation under control. There are still a few non-blocking issues at play that we will hunt down, but we feel confident that the patch we are releasing today will help immensely and allow you to get back into the game. Complete patch notes for today’s patch can be found below.

Moving forward, for update 2 we have some interesting things coming up. The revamped tech tree, which has been a much requested improvement, should be coming with update 2. Below is a preview of what it will look like (keep in mind a fair bit of it is placeholder). Some of the other prominent features coming to update 2 are: the new major faction, space battle improvements, implementation of other victory conditions, planet grid and terraformation revamp, maybe even a (very rough) multiplayer.




With Early Access development, roadblocks are to be expected. This time around, we hit all of them at once. Things got hectic, but we hope the worst is behind us now.

Thank you for sticking with us.
AmpliMath"


PATCH - [0.1.21]

[FIXES]
  • Fixed an issue that corrupted saves when saving the game [Note that this fix is not retroactive: you will need to start a new game]
  • Fixed some stuttering issues to improve performance
  • Fixed exiting the game through Alt F4 making the game unresponsive
  • Fixed an issue that would cause turns to hang indefinitely after clicking End Turn
[BALANCE]
  • Reduced Influence area progression on Systems by approximately 33% [This is a temporary fix while waiting for a more complete change for Update 2]

Best,
Amplitude Studios
ENDLESS™ Space 2 - Steph(✿◠‿◠)


Hey everyone,

Please find below the patch notes for the [0.1.21] version of ES2.

In case you've missed the news, Mathieu our Production Director wrote a blog post about the progress of the current patch for ES2 and Update 2. Check it out here: link.

"Hi all,

As you know, we have been experiencing issues with Endless Space 2 update 1, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

It has been difficult to fix these for two reasons: it is a complex problem, and we are working in parallel in fixing update 1 and developing update 2. We have completely changed the way AI works in Endless Space 2 (compared to our previous games), and the technological aspect of this new AI is harder to maintain / develop.

When we started the project, the AI team looked for other architectures / ways of implementing an AI, and came up with an architecture working in a module separate from the main game. This offered lots of interesting possibilities, such as the AI using its own memory mapping without interfering with the game data, which was one of the limits of our previous AIs. We have also worked a lot on graphical tools to visualize (and debug!) what the AI is doing. The one technical issue with this AI, is that is has to interact with the game to synchronize its data, to make sure it makes educated decisions based on fresh information.

In recent months after the AI architecture was laid down, we implemented a lot of features to allow the AI to play the game, but we have not worked as much on the technical performance of the AI. The status we had at early access was "ok but a bit slow" for the AI, which we deemed acceptable. However, when we added content and features for Update 1, it brought up multiple issues in terms of memory use & multi-threading stability. We set out to fix all these only to be mired in side-effects: performance issues, lags, various bugs and blockers. Sorting these out proved long and challenging, but with the help of the Unity support teams we got the situation under control. There are still a few non-blocking issues at play that we will hunt down, but we feel confident that the patch we are releasing today will help immensely and allow you to get back into the game. Complete patch notes for today’s patch can be found below.

Moving forward, for update 2 we have some interesting things coming up. The revamped tech tree, which has been a much requested improvement, should be coming with update 2. Below is a preview of what it will look like (keep in mind a fair bit of it is placeholder). Some of the other prominent features coming to update 2 are: the new major faction, space battle improvements, implementation of other victory conditions, planet grid and terraformation revamp, maybe even a (very rough) multiplayer.




With Early Access development, roadblocks are to be expected. This time around, we hit all of them at once. Things got hectic, but we hope the worst is behind us now.

Thank you for sticking with us.
AmpliMath"


PATCH - [0.1.21]

[FIXES]
  • Fixed an issue that corrupted saves when saving the game [Note that this fix is not retroactive: you will need to start a new game]
  • Fixed some stuttering issues to improve performance
  • Fixed exiting the game through Alt F4 making the game unresponsive
  • Fixed an issue that would cause turns to hang indefinitely after clicking End Turn
[BALANCE]
  • Reduced Influence area progression on Systems by approximately 33% [This is a temporary fix while waiting for a more complete change for Update 2]

Best,
Amplitude Studios
ENDLESS™ Space 2

Announced in mid-2015, Endless Space 2 entered Steam's Early Access initiative last month to wide user-review acclaim. A few weeks later, developer Amplitude Studios outlined a development roadmap that promised three substantial updates prior to full release the first of which is out now.

While Amplitude doesn't go into the greatest of detail via this Steam Community post, the latest update adds a new major faction by way of the United Empire, as well as three minor ones: the returning Pilgrims and Amoebas, and the new Z valis. Players can now assimilate minor factions too, courtesy of new minor faction quests; while a new turn limit, 200 turns, means players have the option to continue their games even if they've achieved victory at 100.

Other prominent additions are the Marketplace a hub which lets players swap Dust for resources and 'Era 4' of the existing Tech Tree, which creates additional research paths, unlocks and buildings.

"In addition to the features listed above, Amplitude Studios has once again listened to its community and revamped the truce and weapons systems," adds the Steam update post. "With the reworked truce system, a truce will no longer be forced, but will instead be based on civil unrest. With the reworked ship design system, players no longer have any restrictions on weapons, as all hulls can use kinetics, beams, lasers and missiles."

The update also adds a pretty exhaustive list of bug fixes and tweaks the sum of which can be viewed this way. For more Endless Space 2 reading, Phil recently discovered how Amplitude Studios is creating a 4X with personality, politics, and peril in the wake of Endless Legend.

ENDLESS™ Space 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

“I’m not planning to go back until the Early Access period is done,” our Adam said after playing the still-in-development Endless Space 2 [official site], preferring to wait to enjoy the finished game. Fair enough! But if you’ve been playing Amplitude’s space strategy game or simply want to know how development is coming along, here’s word of the first big update. It’s expanding and extending the game, adding another major faction, the United Empire, along with three more minor factions, while extending the turn limit to 200 and adding the fourth tier of technologies. … [visit site to read more]

...